How's Moving Castle: Tales of Love
by ShadowAlchemist503
Summary: Post-movie drabbles of the adventures of Howl and Sophie! (updated often)
1. Sleep

**A/N Hello! I hope you enjoy this.. I don't know if it'll be that amazing, but I've been thinking about it this whole week, and couldn't really get the idea out of my mind. I saw the movie again earlier this week, and oh my God, I just have to say that Howl is sooo gorgeous... Lawl, okay, enough of that. I'm pretty sure you aren't here to read the author of this story rambling. So here you go! Please enjoy, and if you review/favorite/follow, I'll love you forever ;D!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, I am simply a fan toying with the idea.**

**Chapter 1: Sleep**

A cold chill drifted through the wooden walls, reaching Sophie in her sleep. She shifted around, her delicate hands subconsciously reaching for something warm. All she found was the underside of her pillow, and her hand went there instead. Her other hand pulled up the quilt that took her about a week to make, up to her ears, the draft becoming colder and colder. Finally, her eyes snapped open, frustrated by how little warmth anything around her was providing. She got up, her short silver hair fluttering around, to see that the window was slightly open. "No wonder it's so cold in here..." She muttered, standing up to go close it.

Deciding she probably wasn't going to go back to sleep, she ventured downstairs, into the dim of the night. Calcifier was there, his warm, sleeping presence filling the room. Sophie walked into the little kitchen that had food always kept in it, to go make a cup of warm milk.

Inside the living room with a cup of warm milk and Calcifier heating her up, Sophie was bound to fall asleep. It's happened before on nights like this. Especially on stormy nights. She personally thought those were the best nights to have a cup of warm milk.

Sophie took a seat on the plush rocking chair, and placed her elbows on the armrests, holding the warm cup in front of her face, breathing in the steam. She wrapped the soft blanket around her that she made Markl fold earlier, trying to get into the most comfortable position. After taking a few sips, a heavy hitting wave of exhaustion hit her. She leaned forward, and set the cup down on the floor, knowing she could just put it in the sink in the morning. A moment later, her eyes shut, and she was off into the realm of dreams.

In the wee hours of the morning, the door clicked open, wind bustling in like it belonged there. Howl stepped foot inside, after a long night of unfortunately being caught up in battle of flight with a few other transformed wizards. His feathers withdrew, and his hair became normal, all retreating back to his usual features. He closed the door, and shuffled quietly into the living room.

He smiled at the sleeping figure of Sophie, and decided he should probably wake her to take her to the bedroom upstairs. "Hey, Sophie, wake up." Howl said, taking her blanket off of her and setting it aside. She stirred, and her chocolate eyes fluttered open. "Hmm?" Howl helped her to stand up, and he said, "I'd be too lonely to sleep upstairs by myself. I hope you wouldn't mind sleeping next to me."

She shook her head drowsily, mumbling, "okay..." and followed Howl up the stairs like a child. At the top step, Howl held onto her hand, and led her to his bedroom, knowing if he let go, she would go wandering around the place till she found comfortable furniture to sleep on.

He clicked his door open, and shut it behind him. She shuffled over to his bed, barely managing to keep her eyes open. She plopped onto the right side of the bed, and lied down. She rolled to over to her left side, her hand once again searching for something warm to grasp onto. Howl plopped onto the bed as well, a sudden wave of drowsiness hitting him like a ton of bricks, leaving him no room for keeping his eyes open either. He slowly turned to his side, now facing Sophie so he could wake up to a pleasant sight in the morning.

Even though both of them were quickly falling asleep, Howl's left hand and Sophie's right still found each other in the end.


	2. Family

**A/N Hello there beautiful, I see you have a lovely face there. Anyways, please review/favorite/do whatever you want because I am not the boss of you!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these ideas, I'm just a fanatic toying with them.**

**Chapter 2: The Family**

The streets were bustling, the noise so loud, if you were trying to have a conversation with someone more than to feet away you were going to have to shout. Fortunately for Howl and Sophie, Howl could just use his magic to make them walk in the air so they could talk as close or as far away as they wanted without having to shout to hear each other. Plus, walking on air was so much easier than walking through large crowds and continuously bumping into people who would automatically just glare at you.

Today was the day that Sophie was going to see her mother again. It had been more than four months since she had last seen her, and had been feeling kind of guilty about it. Sophie didn't know why Howl wanted to come along, but he did, and by no means was she going to stop him.

They arrived at the hattery Sophie knew all too well. She grasped onto his hand, a bit nervous, and knocked onto the door. She could hear the voice on the other side. "Oh hello So-" Sophie's mother paused when she saw Howl out of all people, the wizard known for stealing poor, beautiful girls hearts, right behind her. "Hi mother!" Sophie exclaimed, looking around, inviting herself in.

Howl followed in, inviting himself in as well. Sophie's mother pulled her aside, practically shrieking, "Why did you bring Howl here? Sophie, don't tell me you love him. He'll eat your heart!" Sophie sighed and said, "Mother, my heart hasn't been eaten. You really don't have anything to worry about. He is actually quite nice."

"Sophie, you're so naive. He's going to eat your heart someday, I hope you realize that." Here mother noted, fumbling with something on her fancy gown. "Mother, you've got it completely wrong! He hasn't eaten my heart, he's stolen it." Sophie said, with a smile that only real love could produce. It was safe to say here mother was appalled and definitely opposed to a wizard like Howl playing her daughter along like this, but there was nothing she could do. Once Sophie made up her mind, she held strong on to her choice.

After Sophie and her mother had stopped conversing, they quickly noticed how quiet and in shock the rest of the shop was. Half of them were either on awe or in fear of Howl, and the other half were staring at Sophie, fairly shocked at the words she shared with her mother. Some whispers went through the crowd of customers, mainly consisting of rumors that Howl had put a spell to make her love him, and that this would probably be the last time they'd see here because of it.

"C'mon Sophie, we should get back before Calcifier gets lonely." Howl said, noting the increasingly judgemental atmosphere. Sophie agreed, and turned to her around to her saying, "I know you probably think I'm a big dummy, but I'm telling you the truth!" With that, they left, leaving the shop in a big fuss, and leaving Sophie's mother with a small headache, hoping that what Sophie said was really true.


	3. Scary Stories

**A/N Hello again! The horror tale that will be told in this was actually inspired by some studying I've done on it, and also an event that had occurred to my parents a few times, and once to me as well (only for a short while though). If you get the chance, please do review/favorite/follow. I'll definitely update more if you do!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Howl's Moving Castle, just a lunatic writing fanfiction about it.**

**Chapter 3: Scary Stories**

The unmistakable sun sunk in the sky, the moon replacing its spot. Heavy clouds settled in, blocking out most of the iridescent moonlight. It was a perfect night to tell a story. Perhaps an excitingly strange one, or a story that makes you think 'I certainly didn't need sleep tonight', and makes your skin crawl. Sophie would much rather not be told the latter, but Howl being Howl, he didn't listen, and was too busy thinking of how to proceed with his story to care.

"Okay Sophie, are you ready?" Howl asked, propping his elbows on his thighs, holding his head in his hands. "I guess I'll have to be..." she grumbled, finishing off the last of her tea.

"Not too long ago, there was this girl who lived with her family in an old compact house," Howl paused, drawing in a deep breath, "She lived there with her dog, her parents, her younger brother, and her grandparents. Her parents put her in the room in the back of the house, which was the smallest. One night, a cold winter day, where night had fallen already, she lied on her bed, under her covers trying to get warm." To add to the effect, he used his magic to make one of the windows fly open, letting in the daft wind of the winter night.

"The warmth was getting to her, and she started to fall asleep, her small, brown eyes growing weary. After a few minutes, the small, barely noticeable sounds of the house died down into oblivion. But at one point in the night, she awoke out of a strange dream. She opened her eyes, and looked around, noticing how unusually dark it was in the room." He took in a deep breath, gauging how good his story probably was from Sophie's anxious face.

"A couple minutes later, and her eyes adjusted into the darkness, and she saw something unusual. She couldn't quite make out what it was, but it struck fear into her young heart. It appeared to be looming over her bed, it's entire body shaking and it's breaths short and raspy. She tried to scream, or make some sort of noise, but no nose came out. Seeing she had tried to do this, the dark figure moved closer, then sat right on her bed,"

"The girl tried to squirm away, but her body simply wasn't responding. At this point she was panicking and closed her eyes, nothing else she could really do at this moment. She wondered why this malicious spirit was here. When she decided she didn't really want to know, she felt the bed move around, and the entity drawing closer. Her breath was caught in her throat, and started to pray, trying to make it go away." At this point, Sophie was paler than usual, "But much to her relief, when she opened her eyes, the entity was nowhere to be seen. At least not anymore for this night." Howl finished, with a satisfying smirk, that quickly dissolved seeing how frightened Sophie was. It certainly was not one of his best stories, but it still scared Sophie senseless.

She sat on the chair shaking, her chocolate eyes glistening with heightened fear. "Howl, will that happen to me? What if an 'entity' comes in here at night, and I wake up and the exact thing happens? What if it grabs my neck, or tries to kill me?" Tears were brimming her eyes and she was rocking back and forth in her seat. "Sophie, don't think like that! It wasn't real, I promise. It's just some silly story someone told me a while back."

She looked utterly unconvinced, and looked up at the ceiling, trying to calm down. Next time Howl knew to respect her wishes when she told him not to tell her a scary story. He walked over from his chair with his blanket still around him, and plopped down in the seat next to Sophie, wrapping the blanket around her. "Also, remember Sophie, I'll protect you if that does ever happen alright? Besides, what 'entity' would want to inhabit a messy place like this?" He said, trying to comfort her, with little success.

"I-I suppose you're right. Please don't tell me another scary again though... I'd really appreciate that." She muttered, snuggling into his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her, and said, "I promise I won't Sophie. Sorry for scaring you." She smiled. "It's okay, I forgive you."

**A/N hello! Okay, so the horror tale is actually based on something called 'Sleep Paralysis'. Yes it is real, and yes it does happen to many people. Basically it's when your body is asleep, and your mind isn't, and because of that you start seeing things that aren't actually happening. Since your body is asleep, you can't exactly scream or move or whatever... My experience with it was one time, I woke up in the middle of the night, and when I woke up, it seemed my dog did as well (he sleeps on my bed with me). When he woke up, he stood up on my bed, but his figure kept growing and growing, and he looked very menacing and scary. At first I was sort of unable to really say anything, so I just blinked and when i opened my eyes again I used my leg to push him down, and he appeared normal again... Ergh, it was not pleasant, and I don't know why, but throughout my lifetime I've had at least five nightmares that had my dog the scary aspect in it... Okay, sorry for the super long author's note, I hope you can forgive! Oh, and thank you for reading. :)**


	4. Death

**A/N Hello everyone! Thank you all for your comments/favorites/reviews, they were highly appreciated! Okay so I'm motivated to write again! Sorry for being away for such a long time, I really got worried that my writing was terrible and lost every drop of motivation.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of Howl's Moving Castle**

**Chapter 4: Death**

Howl did not handle the concept of death very well. Up until recently, he had never had to worry about such a common thing. Sure he's had hardships in his life, but never one like this.

A month back, Sophie had struck sick. At first it started out as a pesky cold, but it gradually transformed into a high fever. Howl wanted to take her to the hospital, knowing that often times if a fever goes untreated for a long time, it could be proven to be fatal. But Sophie just smiled and said 'Don't worry, I'll be better soon. You needn't go out of your way for something like this.' Despite what she said, Howl was still worried.

A few weeks later, when it seemed like she was doing much better, she suddenly collapsed while doing some light housework. When Howl came back later that night from doing who knows what, he discovered Sophie 's hair clinging to her face and a pan and broom lying next to her. 'Sophie!' he shouted, running over to her, fearing for the worst.

He crouched down and put a hand to her heart, trying to feel any kind of heartbeat. Finally after a moment of clenched teeth and broken fear, he felt a faint beat. Howl almost wanted to cry with relief. But before he got the chance to do that, one of Sophie's eyes opened, very bloodshot, and very sad. A few seconds later, her other eye creaked open. She smiled gently and said 'I love you Howl. Please never forget that.'He bit back tears and said, "I love you too Sophie. But you're going to be okay, so please don't talk like you're going to die.'

Sophie smiled a ghost of a smile and said, 'I really don't know why I got so sick...I don't really know why it got so bad and is making me feel so terribly tired...I guess life's unfair that way isn't it?' Howl felt his heart nearly crumple in his chest as he watched Sophie's eyes shut and her smile fade. She had been the one who saved him from his despair, yet he couldn't even do the same?

When he could no longer feel a heartbeat, he broke into sobs, that no matter how hard he tried, would not cease. He was glad neither Markl nor Calcifer were here to see him in such a state.

Each day afterwards felt treacherous and it broke him all over again seeing her in a black casket with Markl sobbing and all of her family glaring at him like it was his fault she was dead. But he didn't have heart to glare back, he could only mourn.

A week after the funeral, Howl didn't know what to do anymore. He felt broken and really wished he could make a contract with a fire demon again just to get his stupid emotional heart out of him. As time continued on, the idea of joining Sophie sounded extremely pleasant. He closed his eyes and wished and wished to be with her, till one day, it came true.

As you can see, Howl really does not handle the death of loved ones well.

**Sorry, this chapter was putting my writing skills to the test and I don't think it really came out good...**

**Oh and sorry that this chapter was so depressing... I guess I've been watching too many amines/tv shows where characters have been dying so I sort of needed to express my distress of it all in writing. But I promise the next chapter won't be terribly depressing!**

**Oh and also if any of you have any themes or something of that type you want me to do, please let me know, and I will do them! I promise not to be gone for so long from now on.**


	5. Kiss

**A/N Hello again! Thank you for all the reviews and favorites ^_^ It's making me a lot happier to write and makes me think people are enjoying it :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the book version or movie version of Howl's Moving Castle**

**Chapter 5: Kiss**

Calcifer sighed from his hearth, knowing full well that if he tried to intervene between their argument, he would just end up getting yelled at. And what were they arguing about this time? They were arguing about laundry. Plain old laundry.

"Are you a complete idiot?! Everyone knows you can't throw reds and whites together!" Howl shouted, pointing towards his favorite once white shirt, now pink. "Well excuse me, but that has never happened before! I bet you put some spell on it to make it change like that!" Sophie shouted back, crossing her arms. "Why in the world would I put a spell on my favorite shirt? Just admit it Sophie, it's your fault!"

She glared at him like no one's business. "If you're so set on making me upset, then 'll just go ahead and leave!" Before she could make an exit and stomp her way upstairs, Howl grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her around. "Will you just be quiet?"

Before she could even react properly, he leaned in and kissed her, making her anger quickly melt. A few seconds later, she pulled back and muttered, "I'm sorry for ruining your shirt." He laughed it off and said, "You know I could always fix it with magic if I really cared enough."

The two walked upstairs hand in hand, and Calcifer smirked from his hearth, and hoped this could be a new way for them to stop arguing so much.

**A/N**

**See, this chapter isn't so depressing! (It actually felt like a really cliche chapter to be honest.) From now on, I'm going to try and upload weekly, so be expecting that! thank you all so much for reading! Also, sorry if these drabbles aren't the best, my writing is a little rusty for barely having written in about four months :L**


	6. Frustration

**Hello! Thank you Phisouttawatta and James Birdsong for reviewing my story :) Both of your reviews have made me really happy! Also, thank you to those of you who followed and faved my story, it really means alot to me! By the way I'm posting this two days early since I have the free time to :) (For right now at least)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of Howl's Moving Castle in either the book or movie.**

**Chapter 6: Frustration**

Sophie grabbed her brush off her desk and walked over to her bedroom mirror and began to get ready for the day. she ran her wooden brush through her silvery hair, wincing as it tugged at her scalp and practically tore through the tangles. It was normally so easy to brush her hair, but on humid days like this, when her hair got all frizzy an erratic, the messiness increased tenfold. After a few minutes, all the knots had been separated, and she was finally ready to go make breakfast. She patted any extra hair down and shortly after headed downstairs.

"Sophie! Wait! Don't come downstairs yet!" It was too late. Sophie had arrived on the bottom of the landing to find the entrails of what once could've been a delicious cake, spattered all over the floor, and Markl desperately trying to clean it up. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before asking the boy what in the world was going on.

"I was trying to make a cake to surprise you, but then the castle moved oddly, and I fell and dropped the cake!" Markl explained, wiping some batter off of his nose. Sophie sighed, then smiled, and offered, "How about I clean up the rest, and make a replacement cake?" Being the youngling he was, Markl didn't feel too much guilt, and nodded, accepting her offer with a grin.

Twenty minutes into mixing the stupid cake, she found they had no butter or eggs! What a waste of ingredients she had bought with her _own money_! She growled and almost broke the wooden spoon in half if it had not been for the castle _lurching_ and her nearly falling backwards. Sometimes she really loved this place, and sometimes she really hated it.

After a few moments of frowning and thinking, Sophie was entirely unsure what to do with the ingredients. _Maybe she could feed it to Calcifer_? Sophie sighed and grabbed the uncooked batter, hoping the fire demon wouldn't be too offended by the ingredients. She walked over to his hearth and ordered a 'open up' before pouring the ingredients inside his mouth. Calcifer after a moment decided that it wasn't horrible nor was it good, and muttered a 'thanks'.

Within a couple hours, Sophie had managed to successfully cook breakfast and to finish her book, now not too annoyed with how the day was turning out. She grabbed the wool blanket from behind the chair, and wrapped it around herself, as it was starting to get rather cold. Her eyes closed as she began to fall asleep, since for some reason, she had become incredibly exhausted.

She woke up with a startle as she felt a pair of warm hands on her shoulder. "Good evening Sophie. Would you like to continue sleeping down here or upstairs?" Oh, it was just Howl. "Down here if you don't mind, I still have to do the dishes..." Sophie mumbled, barely aware of what she was saying and what she was thinking, as for some reason, she felt extremely tired. "I can do them for you if you like." Howl offered. Howl doing dishes?

Sophie wasn't aware that she audibly snorted and muttered a 'yeah right'. Howl frowned and said, "What, you think I can't do the dishes?" Why he wanted to start an argument now, Sophie will never know. "Well you've never done them before, so why would you start now?" Sophie snapped back, coming off of her drowsiness.

"Maybe that's because I don't have the time to! I have things to attend to, you know that? All you do all day is clean so of course you'd have time for that! It's all you're good for!" Sophie really did not need Howl acting like a child, and she _especially_ did not need the tears that were brimming her eyes. "All I'm good for hmm? So you're saying I'm just a cleaning lady to you too?" Howl lost some of his bravado, but stupidly continued talking. "Exactly."

"Well if that's how you really feel you can hire a different cleaning lady!" She paused and walked towards the back door before turning around and practically hissing, " Oh do _please_ break it to Markl that he won't be seeing his favorite cleaning lady ever again." Howl at that moment realized he should probably stop being an idiot.

"Wait Sophie, I'm sorry! I'm just in a pretty bad mood okay?" Sophie dropped her hand from the doorknob, and turned around to face him. "Well I'm not exactly in a good mood either! But you don't see _me_ starting an argument!"

Howl chuckled and walked over to Sophie, who was still stubbornly standing by the door, even though her anger was quickly dissipating. Howl pulled her into his chest before she could react, and she stuttered out a 'Let me go!' She sighed against him when she realized he wouldn't. He said, "Why don't you go back to sleep in your own room this time? It's probably more comfortable than the chair."

Sophie bit back a yawn at the mention of sleep, and agreed. A bed sounded a lot more comfortable than a chair, and plus, the longer she slept, the quicker this day will pass and she won't have to deal with anymore troublesome things till tomorrow.

**A/N**

**Hello, yet again! Okay, so I kind of wrote this chapter from a certain inspiration, and the inspiration being this day. Today I found out that since I was late twice and don't participate 'enough' (even though I do every day) my Spanish teacher is giving me an F in her class for the 5 week grade which is really frustrating since I'm working my butt off to do good and have a good start to highschool and all that jazz. I told my mom about it and she got even angrier than I did towards the reasons why. **

**Ugh. School. (You feel what I mean?)**


	7. Recognition

**Hello! Okay, so I don't know if any of you have heard A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, but it's really amazing and this chapter was heavily influenced by it. I seriously suggest you listen to the song if you haven't already.**

**Thank you all so much for all the reviews! Especially you, maebell's chronicles! Your review made me grin like a total idiot, and to be honest it was probably one of the nicest reviews I've gotten.**

**Also, I don't know about you, but I've seen lots of pictures and suggestions saying Howl recognized Sophie at the beginning of the movie because he remembers someone that looks alot like her when she went in to his childhood and told him to wait for her and so he's been in search for her.**

**I feel kind of dumb for not even thinking about that even after watching the movie 6 times :P**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Howl's Moving Castle in any aspect. I am merely toying with the idea.**

**Chapter 7: Recognition**

**xXx**

Howl sat on a rather plush chair, eyeing the crowd of people as many of them huddled through the mass of mounts of people that was known as one of many festivals in Ingary. He hardly touched his water and his date had left him about ten minutes ago saying she was going to let her mother know where she'd be. Not that he truly cared, considering that if his date needed consent from her mother, she was probably too young for him anyways.

He blinked out of his annoyance for a second when he saw a girl that looked around 19-20 walking through the streets, who looked oddly familiar. She seemed to be in a rush, and her face was set in determination. The woman in his memory though looked so loving and pleading, and definitely did not have such mousey brown hair and certainly did not have such a tacky plain hat. But he decided to follow her anyways.

As he followed the girl, trying to just blend in and not look to suspicious, he wondered why she would even be involved in his life? Why was the only memory he had of her was her running to meet him and calling out to him, right as his heart came out of his chest? It all seemed so strange. Still, this mystery girl could not have called out to him without reason. She had yelled to him to wait for her in the future, and that is exactly what he was doing.

He shook the thoughts from his head as he followed her into an alleyway, the only rumbling noise coming from two men clad in uniform up ahead. Howl frowned as he witnessed the two guards checking her out from head to toe, the one with the moustache looking far too mischievous. They were both at least a head taller than her, and both looked grinning as if they struck loot.

As soon as he heard her voice, he knew it had to be the woman with starlight hair from his memory. Who else could have an accent like that in all of Ingary? He snapped out of his trance and walked over to the woman, slinging an arm around her shoulder saying that she's with him. The two men immediately stopped laughing. Instead Howl almost wanted to laugh when he swirled them around and made the stomp away by just using a bit of magic.

Howl felt this mousy haired girl tense underneath him, and her heart rate quicken. His would've sped up in giddy excitement, if he had a heart of course. He glanced down at her and saw her brown eyes as wide as frying pans, and her hands clutching onto her dress. His amusement faded away when he heard the faint yet distinct sloshes of Sullimen's men, and quickly told the girl of the situation.

Despite the circumstances, Howl felt rather pleased with himself that not only was he 99% sure he had found the right girl, but he was also sure the girl was for more flustered and dazed than he could ever hope for. When he set her down at the building she had requested, he flew down, really hoping that he would encounter her again someday.

**xXx**

**A/N Oh man, that turned out different than I expected. Sorry if it's confusing, I tried to make it not like that, and I apologize if it confused you, and I also tried to not to go too much into the sequences that were already played in the movie as to not bore you. I hope you were able to recognized how I incorporated this into the beginning of the movie, and if not, then woopsie me! Also have any of you read the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle? It's called Castle In the Air and I'm only 30 pages into it and it's really amazing, and i just looked it up on the wiki, and apparently Sophie and Howl have a child in this book! **


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